NASA inventions may help highway, air travel

NASA inventors delivering more down-to-Earth rewardsIdeas conceived for use in space may help highway safety, air travel

MARK CARREAU, Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, May 10, 2007

When NASA aims for the stars, the earthbound continue to reap dividends.

The latest bounty from engineers and scientists at the Johnson Space Center in Houston promises to improve health care, air travel, highway safety and more for those who will never float in space or spend years on a trip to Mars.

"When you think about it, we have to learn to be self-sustaining, we have to learn to be gone from Mother Earth for maybe three years at a time," Mike Coats, Johnson's director, said Monday at a ceremony honoring nine teams of inventors.

"If you just expand the idea of self-sustainment to the whole Earth, the possibilities are virtually endless," Coats added. "A lot of the things we are inventing so we can explore the solar system are already going out to benefit the Earth."

All of the inventors have received patents for their innovations in the past year, making them eligible for more income. The licensing of their work to commercial companies earns the space center about $300,000 annually.

When he joined NASA 15 years ago, Dr. Todd Schlegel pondered a career as an astronaut. Instead, he leveraged his experiences assessing the health of volunteers in NASA medical experiments into a strategy for evaluating the hearts of astronauts with a new software application.

Heart-monitoring upgrade

By teaming with
Jude DePalma
, a professor of electrical engineering from
Colorado State University
and other colleagues, Schlegel developed software that probes the high-frequency electrical activity of the heart for hidden signs of an attack or disease. Conventional electrocardiographs are designed to screen out high-frequency activity, sometimes contributing to an overly optimistic assessment of the heart's health, DePalma said.

NASA plans to use the upgraded electrocardiograph in its evaluations of astronaut applicants and astronauts under consideration for long missions. The improved measurement will likely become a part of regular health assessments of astronauts while they are on missions to the moon and Mars, where exposures to higher levels of radiation may contribute to cardiovascular problems.

The upgraded electrocardiographs already is in use as a diagnostic tool in about a dozen U.S and foreign research programs while it undergoes evaluation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for sale to hospitals and medical specialists.

"This has been incredibly gratifying as well as a lot of fun," said DePalma, who is already at work on additional software enhancements.

Another NASA inventor is Mark Kelly, a Navy aviator. When he joined NASA's astronaut corps more than a decade ago, he was nagged by the hazards to fellow fighter pilots posed by hypoxia, an oxygen deficiency that can rapidly impair judgment and lead to a crash.

Pilots of high-performance aircraft wear oxygen masks, but the equipment can leak or experience other malfunctions, placing the flier in danger before he realizes it.

Kelly teamed with fellow astronaut Don Pettit to devise an oxygen measuring sensor that can be installed in the masks along with a vibrating mechanism. When the oxygen level drops dangerously, the mask vibrates.

The Navy is interested in the vibrating mask, said Kelly. He believes the masks could save the lives of firefighters, as well as miners and technicians who work in the holds of ships and large storage tanks.

Sensor detects ice

Phong H. Ngo
, who came to NASA 21 years ago as an electrical engineer, was struck by a Continental Airlines presentation several years ago on the difficulties of de-icing the wings of its airliners. The process is expensive for the airlines and can contribute to lengthy travel delays for passengers.

Ngo joined a team of engineers who addressed the problems by developing a sensor that fits on the wing and relies on microwave signals. The sensor can detect the difference between liquid water and ice.

When linked to a cockpit instrument display, the sensor can inform pilots whether they really need to de-ice before takeoff. The instrumentation could reduce flight delays as well as cut back on the unnecesary use of ethelene glycol de-icer, a toxic substance.

The sensors can also be used on roads and bridges to alert traffic engineers of dangerous icing, Ngo said.